Q-factor essentials sheet

Q-factor is a measure of quality of a particular resonance. Each normal mode, ie mode of oscillation, of a system has two important things: its resonant frequency (sometimes called f0 ), and its Q-factor. Q is a way of saying many things all at once, all of which follow from each other: high Q = high quality = rings for many cycles (long decay time) after being hit = very little damping = peak width of frequency response is narrow = peak width of frequency response is tall.
Now in more detail... There are 2 simple things you can do to a system: hit it once (shown on left side) or excite (drive) it at a given frequency and see how much it responds (shown on right side) ...

DECAY AFTER SINGLE HIT signal A A/e t decay time period T = 1/ f0 Oscillation with exponential decay in time. = how long to die to 1/e, about 37% happens to be the definition Q = times how many cycles in a decay time = ( / T ) using 1/T = f = /2 = f0 = 0 / 2 envelope A(t) = A e -t/

RESPONSE TO DRIVING AT GIVEN FREQ response QC peak height peak width f0 f = __ Q C f (driving) f0 Low frequency response called C: all were saying is the peak height is Q times this. 0 The peak width is Q times narrower than the position of the peak in frequency.

Eg tuning fork has many thousands of cycles during decay time -> high Q, whereas a piece of jello (jelly) only wobbles a few times before settling down -> low Q. Therefore if you want to excite the jello you dont have to get the driving frequency very accurate; with tuning fork you do. It is amazing that all these properties are controlled through a single quantity, Q.